Chhattisgarh tribals’ long, arduous road to freedom

An NIA court last month acquitted 121 villagers arrested under the UAPA after the killing of 25 CRPF jawans in a 2017 Maoist ambush at Burkapal. The prolonged incarceration has upended their lives and taken a toll on their dependants, who endured hardships to ensure that they walked free

Seated outside her mud house in Burkapal, a tribal village in south Chhattisgarh’s Naxal-affected Sukma district, Markam Bime sums up half a decade of her life spent seeking justice for her incarcerated 50-year-old husband Markam Soma: “I visited the Jagdalpur jail a few times to meet him. Each meeting was just a phone call; neither of us could see each other. Conversations often did not last beyond an exchange of sobs. His only query was when he would be released. The only information I had was the next item that would be sold to secure his freedom.”

Nearly 10 km away lies Minpa, another tribal hamlet, where Podiyam Kosa, 30, is hacking the branches of a palm tree outside his house. He is attending to a task that has been pending for the last five years: building a thatched roof for the shed where his family stores forest produce. Kosa and his three brothers had spent those years languishing behind bars while their frail, old father managed the household and cared for the young children they had left behind.

Mr. Soma and Mr. Kosa are among the 121 tribals who were acquitted by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Dantewada on July 15 this year after the prosecution failed to establish their involvement in the killing of 25 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans in a 2017 Maoist ambush in Burkapal.

While the villagers finally received justice, their prolonged incarceration upended their lives and those of their dependants, who endured hardships to ensure that they walked free.

Burkapal is home to 39 of the 121 acquitted tribals, while the rest are residents of villages in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma and Bijapur districts, and Telangana’s Bhupalpally district. The residents of Burkapal say their ordeal began with a “massive 4 a.m. raid”. Thirty-year-old Kawasi Kosa says, “I was sleeping on a cot outside my hut when a large group of policemen gathered around me, waking me up. They dragged me away alleging that I was involved in the killings. I was taken to the Kotwali police station in Sukma, where I was repeatedly told to reveal the truth behind the attack. There was no such truth I was aware of.”

Madvi Lakshman, 32, and Madvi Sanna, 26, say they are the sons of Madvi Dula Ram, a former sarpanch of Burkapal who was allegedly gunned down by Maoists in 2016. A few months after the attack on the CRPF jawans, the police came and picked us up, they say.

The four brothers from Minpa say the police swooped on a wedding party they were attending in nearby Chintagufa and whisked them away.